Hungarian anthropologists to restore Keiki Batyr's face by December 2016

The Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in association with the Kazakh Embassy in Budapest transported Keiki Batyr's skull to Hungary this week. Nurbakh Rustemov, Kazakh Ambassador to Hungary, revealed the news in a Facebook post.

Director of the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursan Alimbai handed over Keiki Batyr's skull to director of the Hungarian Natural History Museum Zoltán Korsós to carry out DNA test and restore the face of the renowned Kazakh batyr.

During the meeting with Korsós, Nursan Alimbai said that the skull of the leader of the 1916 national rebellion Keiki Batyr was returned to Kazakhstan 93 years later. Restoration of his face is considered as an important historical milestone for entire Kazakhstan.

The director of the Hungarian Natural History Museum thanked the Kazakh side for the honor and assured that Hungarian experts will use the most sophisticated technologies in the restoration process.

It is worth mentioning that anthropologists of the museum performed over 70 facial reconstructions, including the one of Abulkhair Khan's face. They plan to restore Keiki Batyr's face by December 2016.

Recall that Keiki Batyr's skull was delivered to Astana from Moscow by a charter flight on October 6. Earlier this year then-Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov asked his Russian colleague Dmitry Medvedev to solve this problem and hand the skull over to Kazakhstan. The skull was kept at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) for many years.